Abstract: The Indo-Pacific labrid fishes of the genus Xyrichtys Cuvier, popularly referred to as razorfishes, are reclassified in Iniistius Gill. The razorfishes of the Atlantic and eastern Pacific currently placed in Xyrichtys remain in that genus except for the Indo-Pacific Iniistius pavo Valenciennes, which also ranges to the eastern Pacific. The Indo-Pacific Novaculichthys woodi Jenkins, sometimes classified in Novaculops, is shifted to Xyrichtys. Five species of razorfishes of the genus Iniistius are recognized for the Hawaiian Islands: the wide-ranging Indo-Pacific I. aneitensis (Gunther), I. baldwini (Jordan & Evermann), I. pavo, the endemic I. umbrilatus (Jenkins), and I. celebicus (Bleeker), a new record for Hawai'i (otherwise known in the western Pacific from the Mariana Islands, Marshall Islands, and American Samoa). Hemipteronotus evides Jordan & Richardson is a synonym of I. baldwini. Iniistius niger (Steindachner) is a melanistic color phase of I. pavo.

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THE GENERIC CLASSIFICATION of the labrid fishes known as razorfishes has a complicated history. Many of the early species were described in the genus Hemipteronotus Lacepede. As explained by Randall and Bauchot (1993), this genus was intended by Lacepede for the Pilotfish (Naucrates ductor), in reference to its short dorsal fin. One razorfish, now Iniistius pentadactylus (Linnaeus), was included in the synonymy of Hemipteronotus, and the genus was later restricted to it. Because both Naucrates and Xyrichtys were threatened by Hemipteronotus, Opinion 1799 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature suppressed Hemipteronotus.

The genus Xyrichtys (from the Greek xyron meaning razor) was described by Cuvier (1814), with the Atlantic Coryphaena novacula Linnaeus as the type species. Randall (1965) reviewed the five species of the genus in the Atlantic (as Hemipteronotus, before the name was suppressed). Victor et al. (2001) wrote that there appear to be six razorfishes of the genus Xyrichtys in the eastern Pacific, two of which are undescribed. One of the six, however, is pavo, which we now place in Iniistius.

We noticed the resemblance of some of the eastern Pacific species of Xyrichtys to Novaculops woodi (Jenkins) (sometimes placed in Novaculichthys), described from the Hawaiian Islands. A comparison of N. woodi with Xyrichtys novacula revealed no differences that could be regarded as generic, so we place Novaculops Schultz in the synonymy of Xyrichtys.

Iniistius was proposed by Gill (1862) for the Indo-Pacific and eastern Pacific species Xyrichtys pavo Valenciennes. Jordan (1891:662) wrote, "It is not unlikely that it will be found necessary to unite Iniistius, Hemipteronotus, Xyrichthys, and Xyrula into one genus, as Gunther has done." Randall in Smith and Heemstra (1986:705) placed Iniistius in the synonymy of Xyrichtys. However, an unpublished Ph.D. thesis on labrid osteology by Tri-thuc Nguyen (1974) provided the following characters to separate Iniistius and Xyrichtys: the palatine bone overlaps the ectopterygoid in Iniistius, whereas it is separate in Xyrichtys; there are no dorsal pterygiophores between the second and third neural spines of Iniistius but two in Xyrichtys. The skull is notably higher in adult Iniistius than in Xyrichtys. Externally we can separate the two genera by the position of the...